Alien Spouse

New Tasty Foods.

For Christmas Mum sent me Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's new cookbook "River Cottage Veg Every Day" and I'm pretty sure we are going to try out 178 of the recipes at least (probably not the beetroot ones though, and I'd bet especially not the beetroot ice cream). I've made a short list of a dozen recipes that need to be eaten as soon as possible, and we cooked off this evening with a deceptively simple leek risotto.

Doc C likes to follow recipes fairly precisely, so we made a very detailed shopping list for the ingredients we would need for the food for this week. We went to our usual super market yesterday and got pretty much everything, but it was surprisingly hard to find chestnuts. So we tried a smaller hippy super market, where I found ginger candy and Doc pounced delightedly on buffalo jerky, but no chestnuts.

This meant we had a mission for today, and I pleased to report we found some at the super hippy supermarket. By the way I had no idea that a jar of chestnuts was so expensive, but they were half-price (because most people only eat chestnuts at Christmas?) so that wasn't too bad and I only used about a quarter of the jar for this meal.

The chestnuts were pan fried in butter, and then sprinkled on top of the leek risotto. It was bloody delicious.

Awake/Asleep

This morning I woke up really early, and I would quite happily have gone back to sleep but the cats had already noticed I was conscious; so it was just easier to get up.

I fed the girls and then watched two films before Doc C got up. Admittedly by the time he did I was curled on the sofa, covered in cats, and napping.

The Dragon and The Unicorn.

Boxing Day is part of Christmas that I have come to appreciate more as a grown-up; because obviously as a kid the day after Christmas is merely the furthest possible day from next Christmas and is therefore rather a disappointment after the frenzy of Christmas itself.

Now I think I prefer it! It's so much calmer (well, not that Doc and I actually did anything exciting for Christmas this year) and there are still all sorts of little treats to still be enjoyed.

We went to Randy and Laura's house to play board games, and were introduced to "Chaostle" which is sort of a simpler version of Dungeons and Dragons. Not that I would notice any major differences having never played actual DnD, but this was pretty fast moving and I enjoyed it a lot.

I took loads of photos of the epic battles - Then when I looked at them later, it seemed that almost all of them featured either the Dragon or the Unicorn, so I thought I'd use the only skirmish that was between these two mythical brawlers (I believe the Dragon won here).

'tis The Season!

Christmas Day!

We celebrated with a late breakfast followed by the traditional playing of video games (Doc C - Arkham Asylum, normal mode); a long walk followed by coffee and cherry pie; the traditional playing of video games (Me - Arkham Asylum, easy mode) and now we are watching "Metropolis" whilst I cook risotto for dinner.

It's practically Dickensian, isn't it?

Coffee Morning.

There must be something about me that suggests that I enjoy home-made baking, because for Christmas I was given a dozen banana cherry chocolate chip muffins and a gift basket of assorted cookies. We finished off the last of the biscotti this morning, so I'm going to have to try out a recipe so we can make more of them.

Tasty little devils!

Phoning It In.

Today we had afew things to do before going to Jack and Amber's house for dinner and cooing over their preternaturally cute baby son.

First we had to take out the recycling because it was at the falling-on-you stage, and as our preferred recycling center happens to be close to a Verizon shop I decided to upgrade my phone. Well, actually, I did not want to upgrade my phone, because an upgrade to me would mean a smart phone and I do not want to pay for the monthly data plan - In fact I wanted to get the simplest of the basic phones, I'd actually have quite liked to down-grade to something without a camera or an MP3 player, because I never use those features. I tried to explain this to the assistant at the Verizon shop, but I think he'd just taken some cold medication or something else that advises you not to drive or operate heavy machinery, I soon realised I was on my own out there. In the end I grabbed an LG Cosmos 2, which was fairly cheap, had a slide out keyboard and uses a micro USB to charge. When I got home I second guessed myself by checking on-line reviews and it seems to be a good texting phone and have a good battery life. Perfect.

After that we bought a cherry pie and came home to get changed for dinner.

Glasses-A-GoGo.

I picked up my new glasses and I love them!

They are angular cat's eyes in a striped grey, with a pink interior. To me they are reminiscent of fish, in a good way, but this particular colour-way is called "grey tiger/pink". Doc C helped me to choose them, and he assures me they are interesting and fun, but not wacky. I do not want wacky. The plan now is that I can still use my older glasses (the lenses are only a little bit stronger in the new specs), so I have a choice of facial accessories depending on my mood/outfit/social obligations.

I also dropped off my favourite pair of shades to have prescription lenses fitted, so I'll actually be able to wear them again! Yay for shades!

Happy Pink Cloud.

As I mentioned at the time, we went to Asheville this weekend, and I took a photo of this rather cheering mural. Obviously it was the happy pink cloud that caught my attention initially, but I particularly like the black half-cloud at the top left; it's painted on a bit of masonry that's sticking out slightly so there is a pleasing 3D effect.

It's always been my aim to have a photo up every day, but that has definitely been dropping off recently. The main problem I have with downloading and editing my photos at the moment is purely that I have to use the desktop in the study to do that, and it's a temperamental beastie at the best of times.If you plug in a USB before switching it on, then it crashes and Doc C has to physically take it to bits and re-build it. This sort of thing makes me wary of using it.

Anyway, I had read about memory cards that had built in wi-fi and would just automatically upload all your photos when in range of your home network (or any of the 32 other networks you can give it permission to use). So I bought one, and it's all set up and raring to go. So far I've just taken some test shots of an empty cake stand, but once I've got something better than that I'll post them here.

Just Ducky.

For Christmas the Assistant Chair of my department gave me a spa set, which is bubble bath, body cream, an eye mask and DUCKY SLIPPERS - I hadn't previously thought of Ducky Slippers as being a staple of a good spa, but now I shall demand them!

I'll give you two guesses which of the cats is a bit freaked out by these, and is very much on her guard whenevr I'm wearing them.

Second Day of Christmas.

Today I slept for something like 14 hours last night, it was epic.

Then we went with Randy and Laura to see the new Sherlock Holmes film, which was super-fun.

That was my whole day, and it rocked!

On the First Day of Christmas.

We have enjoyed the first day of our Christmas holiday, celebrating by on Doc's side by finishing his grading and on my part by watching several films of varying quality. Then we went out for lunch to reward Doc C's having submitted the grades by today's deadline. Yay!

Asheville Saturday - December.

Journey - We drove to Asheville today for my haircut, on the way we stopped in a shop that we've been interested in going to for a while because it also serves slices of pie with coffee. The pies are baked in house and are really delecious; we both got pecan pie this time, but I'm going to have to try the coconut cream pie next time.

Shopping - Even with a stop for pie, we still were 45 minutes early so we shopped for books. I scored two kids books by Catharine Jinks and "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Doc C was giddy to snap up a $2 copy of a Bertrand Russell book, so that was good too.

Haircut - Seeing as I won't be at work for a couple of weeks, I asked Naomi for a slightly edgier cut than I usually get and I think she enjoys having a bit of creative freedom! She took a couple of photos with her phone for her portfolio.

Food - Sushi! We ate miso soup and seaweed salad, then an excellent selection of sashimi and sushi. So delicious.

After that we came home.

It was a good day.

Christmas Break.

Today was the last day of exams; more importantly it was my last day of work for two weeks. Squee! I have a very very limited number of plans, mostly it's going to be a lot of sleeping, video games and home-made mince pies.

Students: Compare and Contrast.

 

Doc C checked Facebook last night and found this video on a friend's wall. I have watched it a couple of times this morning, posted it to my own wall and even listened to students in the hallway outside my office apparently prepping together to have this conversation with their professor en masse.

sigh.

Then a student, whom I know slightly, came into my office carrying a paper sculpture that she had made for an English class project, and was now giving to her professor.

It's Alice talking to the Caterpillar in Wonderland, and it was made from a maths book (which is genius in itself). There are different types of flower, different sizes of toadstools and a butterfly covered in calculus.

This makes me very happy.

 

Balsam and Dubbin.

I spent a good chunk of my Sunday afternoon applying Doc Marten's Wonder Balsam to every pair of DMs in the house. I also added some Doc Marten's Dubbin (which should help to weather proof the leather) to my lace up brown boots and I'm debating whether or not the new fleece lined boots need some too.

The tin didn't have very specific instructions on how to apply the balsam, but I gather from the internet that you rub on a good amount and leave it to really soak into the leather overnight, the next day you wipe off any excess with a soft cloth. I'm really quite looking forward to doing that when I get home tonight, the boots look so nice when they are all shiny and properly cared for.

The Festive Season.

Last week was the last week of classes, so whilst there are still a week of exams to get through before the Winter break, there is a distinct scent of festivity in the air. Last week I went to a drag show, my department's Christmas drinks and the annual Christmas party of some friends of ours - These events, plus our usual Wednesday pub night, meant that we were out four nights out of seven and that is a lot for me. I felt distinctly unsociable and headachey by Sunday, so I wanted nothing more than to play "Arkham Asylum", read about animal communication and get my Doc Martens ready for winter.

When we were invited out to the cinema on Sunday, it sounded fun but it also sounded like I'd have to wash my hair and get dressed.  I really needed some quiet time at home, so we declined but it's so nice to have friends who understand that sometimes you just have to power down.

This week we've got Doc's departmental party, a haircut in Asheville and a Torchwood viewing party; so far there's nothing else on the calendar and that sounds just about perfect to me.

The Stuff Diet.

In the midst of my recent and un-characteristic de-cluttering (Next on my list to get rid of is all of the acrylic yarn I bought when I first started crocheting/knitting, I have no idea why I was keeping this because I really dislike working with it), I find that I'm being offered really good deals on things that I've been wanting for a while. Out of nowhere the fleece lined Doc Martens I've been visiting on-line for two years were suddenly reduced in price by $50, and then this morning BuiltNY sent me an e-voucher for $10 off their super cool Cargo™ Travel Organizer.

It's definitely odd to be simultaneously buying new treasures as I'm clearing out old junk, but I don't think it's entirely contradictory. What I noticed during my purge is that I've been holding onto a lot of cheap things that I didn't care for that much, as opposed to owning a reasonable number of good quality belongings that I love. I'm thinking of it like transitioning from only eating junk food to a diet of healthy but delicious things; so the aim in both instances is not to weigh yourself down with stuff you don't actually need or want but to consciously aim for a good balance.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” William Morris

 

Wintery.

How is it managing to snow pretty much only on days that I have to walk into own for some reason? Although if it must do that can I request actual snow and not this horrible freezing rain stuff? That's just all the bad bits of rain and snow, but without the benefit of things looking pretty. Ugh.

Surprise Finger Monster.

One of the joys of on-line shopping is when you get an unexpected bonus item, and this is all the more true when it's something fun. I received a small box of daft gifts* today and, when I opened the box, a finger monster was on top of a heap of bio-degradable packing peanuts.

I particular appreciate that who ever it was that put him into the box was thoughtful enough to give him a snack; don't worry, the packing peanuts are made from potato starch, so it's probably safe for monsters to nom on.

*Since moving to the US I almost dread the annual office gift exchange, because it is so tricky to gauge what might be a good gift for a colleague. I can't fall back on that standard of impersonal British gift giving - A nice bottle of something.

A Disorderly Series of Unrelated Items of Information.

Thorndyke was not a newspaper reader. He viewed with extreme disfavour all scrappy and miscellaneous forms of literature, which, by presenting a disorderly series of unrelated items of information, tended, as he considered, to destroy the habit of consecutive mental effort. "It is most important," he once remarked to me, "habitually to pursue a definite train of thought, and to pursue it to a finish, instead of flitting indolently from one uncompleted topic to another, as the newspaper reader is so apt to do. Still, there is no harm in a daily paper—so long as you don't read it."
Freeman, R. Austin (2008-09-05). Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries Collection, Volume One (Four Books in One Volume!) (Kindle Locations 4272-4276). ignacio hills press (TM) IgnacioHillsPress.com. Kindle Edition. 

Based on this rather charming dismissal of newspapers I'd assume that Thorndyke would not approve of the advent 24 hour news channels or the internet.

Toning Down Christmas.

It occured to me this morning that I had not yet decorated the house for Christmas, but at the same time I'm right in the middle of reading "Miss Minimalist" (on my Kindle) and it just feels wrong to glitter the whole house.

So I compromised and hung up the faux vintage ornaments I bought in Boston last year on the twig arrangement from Halloween, then I added in a couple of other ornaments to balance those out and that's that.  

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 I love the faux vintage ornaments almost more then I did when I bought them last year, they are delightfully tacky and rather adorable in their own very plastic way. Doc C is a particular fan of the angels, who are all holding their hands out in front of them in the manner of fisherman describing the one-that-got-away. They also all have black eyes, which gives them quite a creepy alien-being ambience.

Finally, on the dining table, I've put up the sad little Christmas tree beloved by Charlie Brown and all those who get a bit tearful when watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) ...*cough*Doc*cough*...

Early Morning False Alarm.

Ugh, I've been half asleep all day! Doc C woke up in the early hours of the morning feeling sufficiently unwell enough to warrant a quick jaunt into town to reacquaint ourselves with the emergency room's waiting area. As it happened he felt better once we'd got there, so we turned round and drove the eerily empty roads home again.

I was, not surprisingly, late for work this morning, and I'm prepared to bet I was not really very bright-eyed or bushy tailed. Still, Doc seems fine today and I'm far too pleased about that to be cross with him for waking me up on a school night.